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Women work without a break for their families, society, and friends all through the year. So, on IWD 2016, LEAD conducted their 3rd annual "Recognizing the Unrecognized", where women in our society who are rarely recognized but are responsible for important work were recognized for their contributions, such as cleaning railway stations, bus stands, picking household trash, selling vegetables etc. LEAD and LEADers believe that, without these women, our communities would come to a standstill.

The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. To that purpose, the LEaders Accelerating Development (LEAD) Program of the Deshpande Foundation was born. LEAD develops innovative and entrepreneurial thinking within college students by exposing them to social issues, encouraging them to volunteer their time and effort into the community, and igniting their latent talent to come up with creative solutions. Through this unique platform provided by LEAD, students are gaining the skills and confidence needed to transform their visions into realities. Armed with guidance, exposure, networking opportunities, financial assistance, and encouragement from LEAD, students from throughout 75 colleges and 14 districts are unleashing their leadership potential to go on inspiring and improving those around them.

The 6th Yuva Summit, an international youth conference on leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship hosted by the Leaders Accelerating Development program, began in Hubballi on 6th February with Mr. Ravindranath Gumaste, Managing Director of Kirloskar Ferrous Industries Ltd., cutting the ceremonial ribbon that let the hundreds of attendees, including students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and honoured guests, into the event grounds.

On 24th January, 107 promising students from across Karnataka and neighbouring states descended upon the VTU campus in Belagavi to mark the kick-off of the 5th annual LEAD Prayana. These students, along with 32 beginning their journey on the same day in Nizamabad, were selected from a pool of almost 500 applicants. LEAD Prayana, which began in 2012 with just 63 students, is an annual leadership journey that takes almost 150 passionate students between the ages of 18-26 throughout India on a 14-day tour across Karnataka...

I am passionate about science, especially physics. My affair with Science started during my childhood and it deepened in my high school when I started participating in Science exhibitions with my models. During Pre University Education, I built the Levitation Train with few of my friends and grabbed prizes at several competitions. “Physics of the Impossible” by Michio Kaku was a book that exposed me further to the vastness of the science and motivated me to start a science group called “Blackbody Science Group (Which Absorbs All Wavelength of Intuitive Minds)”. This group engages in creating interest about science among government and physically disabled school children.

LEader
Krishna Kumar and his team members Aaliza, Sujit and Naveen from SHEPA College,
Varanasi had taken an initiative to “Provide Science Practical Knowledge to Orphanage
children of Rajkiya Baalgrih”, Ramnagar, Varanasi, with the help of Agastya International
Foundation. This Foundation goal is to Spark the curiosity within students
through Science & Maths Models.

Leader Cited that: “You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can
teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process
as long as he lives.”- Clay P. Bedford

Krishna
observed the Rajkiya Baalgrih for several days and he found that there are many
classes engaged for the orphanage kids without practical exposure and learning and
then he decided to teach those students by exposing them to practical
knowledge. The LEAD program has provided the platform for turning his idea into
action.

Krishna
and his team came forward to implement this idea along with the support of
Agastya Foundation. LEaders gathered
students (Aged 8 to 15 years) and excited them through activities and games;
during this activity they introduced the Agastya Foundation team to students. Through
these activities, Students got to know basics about Science such as its
definition, daily usage of Science, its benefit and much more. Apart from this,
kids learnt “Reflection of Light Model” and “Basic information on Eye”. 20-30 students got practical knowledge of Science
and it helped them to come out of their hesitating nature.

The
students were excited to learn new things and they were asking too many
questions to the instructor. When the session concluded, a student gave
feedback and students mentioned that they need more practical exposure.